As reported in JAMA Oncology by David A. Reardon, MD, and colleagues, the phase III CheckMate 143 trial showed no difference in overall survival among adult patients with a first recurrence of glioblastoma treated with nivolumab vs bevacizumab following standard radiation and temozolomide therapy. ...
In a single-center phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Janjigian et al found that the addition of pembrolizumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy showed activity in the first-line treatment of HER2-positive metastatic esophagogastric cancer. Study Details The investigator-initiated trial...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mark Bustoros, MD, and colleagues identified genomic features of smoldering multiple myeloma associated with a higher risk of progression to multiple myeloma and found that alterations that drive disease progression are already present at the ...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Roschewski et al found that risk-adapted dose-adjusted etoposide doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone, and rituximab (EPOCH-R) produced high event-free survival rates among high- and low-risk adult patients with...
In an interim analysis of the German phase II IMMUNED study reported in The Lancet, Zimmer et al found that adjuvant therapy with nivolumab/ipilimumab or nivolumab alone significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival vs placebo in patients with resected stage IV melanoma and no evidence of...
Results of the phase II DESTINY-Gastric01 study—reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 4513) and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, by Kohei Shitara, MD, of the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, and colleagues—found that the antibody-drug conjugate...
As reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 5602) and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Shore et al, the phase III HERO trial showed sustained castrate testosterone levels and lower risk of major cardiovascular events with the oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone...
In a retrospective analysis reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Grover et al found that enterocolitis flares occurred in approximately one-quarter of patients with preexisting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or microscopic colitis who received immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of solid ...
In a phase I/II Children’s Oncology Group study (AAML1421) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cooper et al identified the phase II dose of CPX-351, a liposomal preparation of daunorubicin and cytarabine, and found that a regimen consisting of CPX-351 followed by fludarabine, cytarabine,...
In the final overall survival analysis of the phase III PROSPER trial reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program (Abstract 5515) and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Cora N. Sternberg, MD, and colleagues found that enzalutamide plus androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT)...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Alessandro Gronchi, MD, and colleagues, final results of a phase III trial conducted by the Italian, French, and Polish Sarcoma Groups showed no disease-free or overall survival benefit with use of histology-tailored vs standard...
As reported in The Lancet by Matthew D. Galsky, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues, the phase III IMvigor130 trial has shown prolonged progression-free survival with first-line atezolizumab plus platinum-based chemotherapy vs platinum-based chemotherapy alone in patients ...
As reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program by Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, and colleagues (Abstract 9001), the phase III KEYNOTE-604 trial has shown that first-line pembrolizumab plus etoposide/platinum significantly prolonged progression-free survival and prolonged overall survival at a...
In an analysis of the pivotal phase III HER2CLIMB trial to be reported at the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program, Nancy U. Lin, MD, and colleagues found that tucatinib, a small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is highly selective for HER2, plus trastuzumab/capecitabine significantly improved...
In a retrospective study of registry data reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mehta et al identified alternative donor sources for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) that were associated with better graft-vs-host disease (GVHD)-free (GRFS) and chronic GVHD–free (CRFS) relapse-free...
In a single-institution study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Goyal et al found that use of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) self-assessment tool during weekly on-treatment physician visits was associated with reduced symptom severity vs routine symptom management in patients...
As reported by Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, and colleagues in The Lancet Oncology, the phase III ClarIDHy trial has shown that the isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) inhibitor ivosidenib improved progression-free survival vs placebo in patients with advanced IDH1-mutant chemotherapy-refractory...
On April 17, 2020, tucatinib was approved for use in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine for treatment of adult patients with advanced unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. These patients included those with brain metastases and those who have received one or more prior...
On April 15, 2020, mitomycin gel was approved for the treatment of adult patients with low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer.1,2 Mitomycin gel is for pyelocalyceal use alone and not for intravenous, topical, or oral administration. Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings in the...
On April 3, 2020, luspatercept-aamt was approved in the treatment of anemia failing to respond to an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent and requiring 2 or more red blood cell (RBC) units over 8 weeks.1,2 The treatment is geared toward adult patients with very low– to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic ...
On April 10, 2020, the oral MEK inhibitor selumetinib was approved for the treatment of patients 2 years of age and older with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) who have symptomatic, inoperable plexiform neurofibromas.1,2 Selumetinib is the first therapy approved for children who have this disease....
On April 17, 2020, pemigatinib was granted accelerated approval for the treatment of adults with previously treated unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cholangiocarcinoma with a fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) fusion or other rearrangement as detected by a U.S. Food and Drug...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Fumiko Chino, MD, and colleagues found that while the incidence of opioid-related death has increased in both the general population and in patients with cancer in recent years, opioid-related death is far less common among individuals with ...
In a phase II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Shu et al found that neoadjuvant treatment with atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel/carboplatin produced a major pathologic response in 57% of patients and a complete pathologic response in 33% of patients with resectable, predominantly stage IIIA...
A study using data from the Michigan state cancer registry, reported in JCO Oncology Practice by Paniagua Cruz et al, found that a higher proportion of white vs black patients with esophageal cancer were married; that single patients were less likely to receive esophagectomy and chemotherapy; and...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Boulad et al found a low rate of COVID-19 morbidity among infected pediatric patients with cancer seen in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center pediatric program, as well as a low rate of infection in patients without COVID-19...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Richard S. Finn, MD, and colleagues, the phase III IMbrave150 trial has shown that anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) plus anti-VEGF therapy with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab improved progression-free and overall survival vs sorafenib ...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jackson et al found that the common practice of omitting androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) from treatment with external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) plus a brachytherapy boost (BT) may be associated with poorer overall survival in men with...
In an article published in Science, Lawrence Corey, MD; John R. Mascola, MD; Anthony S. Fauci, MD; and Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, describe the composition and aims of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-led Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) partnership....
In a single-institution retrospective study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Lynch et al found that routine laboratory surveillance testing had limited value in detecting relapse in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma in first remission. Study Details The study involved 235 patients at...
In a Childhood Cancer Survivor Study analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Barlow-Krelina et al found that consistent physical activity vs consistent inactivity was associated with reduced neurocognitive problems and greater improvement in neurocognitive domains during long-term...
In correspondence published in The New England Journal of Medicine, two practitioners from Tata Memorial Centre, India’s largest cancer center, describe measures taken to continue providing cancer care during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. As related by the authors, scaling back of operations at...
In the SWOG S1105 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS, and colleagues found that a text message intervention did not reduce the rate of early discontinuation of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy in postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer....
In a phase II German Hodgkin Study Group trial (NIVAHL) reported in JAMA Oncology, Bröckelmann et al found that both concomitant and sequential nivolumab plus AVD (doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) regimens showed efficacy in first-line treatment of early-stage unfavorable classical...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Shi et al found that use of higher-than-currently-recommended severity thresholds for symptom alerts for patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy would result in failure to identify and treat many patients requiring clinical intervention for ...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jaume Capdevila, MD, and colleagues found that the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor spartalizumab produced responses in a cohort of patients with locally advanced or metastatic anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, with all...
In a study reported in JCO Oncology Practice, Bickell et al found that providing oncologists with communication skills training did not improve the frequency or quality of goals-of-care discussions for patients with advanced cancer. Study Details In the study, 22 oncologists were randomly assigned...
In the phase III REACH2 trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Zeiser et al found that the JAK1/2 inhibitor ruxolitinib improved response rate vs investigator’s choice of therapy in patients with glucocorticoid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic stem...
On March 27, 2020, durvalumab (Imfinzi) was approved for use in combination with etoposide and either carboplatin or cisplatin as first-line treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on the findings of the open-label phase III ...
On April 8, 2020, encorafenib was approved for use in combination with cetuximab for the treatment of previously treated adult patients with metastatic colorectal cancer with a BRAF V600E mutation detected by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved test.1,2 Encorafenib is not indicated...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues, analyses in the phase III KEYNOTE-522 trial have shown that the addition of pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the use of adjuvant...
In the single-institution phase II PROLUNG trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Oscar Arrieta, MD, and Christian Rolfo, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that the addition of pembrolizumab to docetaxel improved objective response rates and progression-free survival in immunotherapy-naive patients with...
As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine by Isabelle Ray‑Coquard, MD, PhD, of the Centre Leon Berard, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Groupe d’Investigateurs Nationaux pour l’Etude des Cancers Ovariens (GINECO), Paris, and colleagues, the phase III PAOLA-1 trial has shown a...
In an expansion of a Children’s Oncology Group trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Mody et al found that the combination of irinotecan, temozolomide, the anti–disialoganglioside GD2 antibody dinutuximab, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (I/T/DIN/GM-CSF) showed...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ladas et al found that increased dietary intake of antioxidants was associated with reduced risk for bacterial infection and grade ≥ 3 mucositis during induction therapy in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Study...
In a commentary published in The Lancet Oncology, Dinmohamed et al detailed a nationwide reduction in cancer diagnoses in the Netherlands in the several weeks following the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country compared with the several weeks preceding the first documented case. This...
In a phase II trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Kim et al found that nivolumab showed antitumor activity in patients with advanced refractory biliary tract cancer. As noted by the investigators, there currently is no established second-line systemic treatment for biliary tract cancer. Study Details...
In the single-arm phase III OLYMPUS trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Kleinmann et al found that primary chemoablation of low-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma using a mitomycin-containing reverse thermal gel (UGN-101) resulted in disease eradication in more than half of patients. As...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Getz et al found that use of dexrazoxane was associated with preservation of cardiac function in pediatric patients receiving front-line treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and resulted in no adverse effects on treatment outcomes. As...